Judge saw ‘thread of hope’ when handing out sentence sheriff criticized, attorney says

A circuit judge and a defense attorney have taken issue with allegations raised by a sheriff that the judge ignored a plea agreement and gave a defendant a sentence that was a “slap on the wrist.”

Circuit Judge Alison Lee said Tuesday proposals for the sentencing of Tyreek Lorenzo Bush-Robinson, who went before Lee on June 8, were not presented to her as any type of agreement or deal. Matthews, who wasn’t in the courtroom at the time, said in a Friday press release that there was an agreement and that Lee, a “bleeding heart judge,” had ignored it and given Bush-Robinson probation instead of jail time.

“The solicitor made a recommendation, and the defense made a recommendation,” Lee said. “They were not the same. There was not an agreement on what was recommended. I was free to accept or reject the recommendations.”

Lee sentenced Bush-Robinson, who’s in his early 20s, to three years probation for the majority of charges he had pending in Kershaw County. He had faced charges of receiving stolen goods, possession of a stolen pistol and unlawful carrying of a pistol, among others. The sentence frustrated Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews, who said Bush-Robinson had been a thorn in law enforcement’s side.

“We don’t always get it right as law enforcement,” said Matthews when reached by phone on Tuesday. “And the times that we do, we get undermined frequently by the other part of the judicial system. The system is not working. And I think inevitable results are going to be people taking the law into their own hands.”

Matthews pointed out the 2016 Camden case in which Jimmy Joe Methe shot 17-year-old Brandon Spencer as Spencer attempted to steal gasoline from Methe’s truck as an example. A grand jury refused to indict Methe, and the voluntary manslaughter charge filed against him was dismissed.

Methe’s neighborhood had been hit by several vehicle break-ins at the time, as well as larcenies and burglaries, Matthews said. He said he worries that if the justice system doesn’t deter crimes, there will be more vigilante-style justice.

But Bush-Robinson’s attorney, George Speedy of Camden, said the case wasn’t as clear cut as presented by Matthews. Though he said he did not blame Matthews for doing his job, Speedy warned that not everybody who is labeled as a defendant is a bad guy. Good people can make mistakes, too, he said.

“I think she saw in him a thread of hope that we can restore this kid,” Speedy said. “The judge believed that this kid deserved a change in life. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.”

Speedy also said there was no agreement struck between him and the assistant solicitor. The 5th Circuit Solicitor’s office declined to comment for this story.

But 5th Circuit Solicitor Dan Johnson in a separate opinion piece published in The State newspaper on Tuesday called for respecting the judicial system and said it was “bad public policy to attack judges about a single case.”

Speedy said the solicitor’s office wanted Bush-Robinson to be sentenced to eight years, a deal he was unwilling to sign up his client for.

“I would have cut a deal if we could have gotten some sort of sentence that I thought was reasonable,” Speedy said.

Though on probation, Bush-Robinson still faces charges for a November 2016 arrest on charges of receiving stolen goods and breaking into a motor vehicle; charges for an incident he says he was not involved in, Speedy said. A case he’ll go to court, if necessary, to prove his client’s innocence, he said.

This story was originally published July 18, 2017 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Judge saw ‘thread of hope’ when handing out sentence sheriff criticized, attorney says."